The supermarket occupies 34,000 sq. km of floor space and sells more than 25,000 kinds of commodities, and its parking capacity exceeds 320 automobiles.

German Metro, which is ranked the third in size following the US-based Wal-Mart and the France-based Carrefour, has opened 16 supermarkets in other cities in China, including the cities of Chongqing and Hangzhou, and has set up four regional headquarters in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Beijing.

Metro has an avant-garde management style which involves a type of membership system, and it targets only wholesale-oriented consumers.

A Metro spokesman said that, if the Chinese market continues to expand following the WTO entry, the company will consider setting up an additional 40 supermarkets in the country over the next five years.

(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2002)